


Misericordia

by Dwimordene



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Multi-Age, Other - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2009-04-04
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4215076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dwimordene/pseuds/Dwimordene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"For she maketh men to have faces..."<br/><br/>Nienna's labors, in drabble-length tales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fëanor

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

Good grief's freeing – in mourning, he's maladroit, miserly consumptive. Fire and Spirit – hot, dry splendor, he was ever for her brothers. Her tears he yoked, harnessed to machinery, to further further machinations. Then he burned terrifying, grief feeding grief to feed rage – endlessly!

_Fear the fire that fears subsiding._

But she sits at his hearth, stings his breast with regret until, maddened, he rives himself.

Fire fills that void, cracks him wide – ends him early. Nienna lies amid the heat of his ashes, her blisters weeping.

But she will to Mandos, to his hearth again – endlessly – 'til patience overcome him…


	2. Lúthien and Beren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "For she maketh men to have faces..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Eä_ : Let it be!

Fatality ever ruled them – Man and Elf, to separate ends given. Condemned to suffer love forever all out-jointed, yet in their little life together they are _Magnificence_...!

Then Death descends, brutally. Naked souls, they bewail their Parting. But Fate is pitiless – pity is Nienna's privilege.

She claims it.

Before the throne of Brother Must-Be, she falls like righteousness, bears Lúthien humbly to her knees to Sing in her. For Sister Sorrowing sees past all pales of _What Is_ to _What Should Be_ , and from depths beyond depth, sues: _Release!_

Silence.

Wonder.

Then from Beyond of Fate, _He_ answers: _Eä!_

* * *

  


Author's note: _Eä_ : Let it be!

It is said that Lúthien was possessed by some ancient power of divine provenance when she confronted Carcharoth at the gates of Angband. I figure if it happened once in lesser circumstances, it can happen again in greater ones, because Námo is going to be far more powerful and difficult to sway than even the worst of wolves.


	3. The House of Húrin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "For she maketh men to have faces..."

They were born free, yet Fate abides, like the hangman's noose.

For hardship _weighs_ : the soul, unrelieved of suffering, shrivels, grows husk dry. Tears find no more purchase; the soul hardens as drought-blighted earth and no more opens or gives forth, lest even little loves shatter it.

Nienna dogged Túrin, yet sorrow that scorns pity kills. Húrin she strove with every tortured step, yet her gifts he refused, following Nienor to death by water.

Dry, dry, their wells run dry and barren! Húrin's House sows grief and greatness, itself reaps gracelessness – ruin worse than nothing!

For Fate abides: _Ambar turunië._

* * *

  


A/N: _Ambar turunië_ may or may not mean "By fate mastered." I'm hardly a Sindarin language expert.


	4. Amandil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "For she maketh men to have faces..."

"[I]t is for mercy upon Men and their deliverance from Sauron the Deceiver that I would plead [to Manwë]" – Amandil, "Akallabêth," _The Silmarillion_ , 340.

* * *

  
Thirty days have storms raged o'er Númenor. Judgment threatens, and Nienna's sorrows swell the seas.

Thus she finds him and three servants upon the ocean, looking towards forbidden sunset. Ban-breakers – abandoned to death and despair.

Yet rebels are her ministry. She gathers their prayers, sifts hearts, and finds – _O wondrous!_ – Men faithful to her cause.

Nienna's gifts come strangely guised to Children. She cannot halt death, but its sting she eases, sending them well-blessed and gently to Námo.

But despair she'll deny: on the fortieth day, she'll speed nine dear ships to Middle-earth on a floodcrest of tears.


	5. Melkor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "For she maketh men to have faces..."

In the Singing, he rose in brassy pride, and she wailed her tear-shroud song, lamenting:

_Ah! Thou sad sublime, my lovèd!_

In Time, he'll ask forgiveness; she'll loving give it. He'll ask aid; she'll trusting furnish forth. When, after many betrayals, he is cast into Night, still he calls, and she answers: _Patience!_

Patience. He is her torment, her trial, her temperer – tempter-teacher, crying: _O thou inconsolate, grieve me no more!_

He is her Brother Far-fall, to whom she unrelenting faithful gives her name:

_I am Mourning, thy heart's guard, and thou shalt never lift my veil!_


End file.
